


What Is the Dark Side?

by SilverTonguedSlytherin1



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, Jedi Code (Star Wars), Jedi Culture & Tradition (Star Wars), Jedi Training (Star Wars), The Jedi Path, initiate Obi-Wan Kenobi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-30
Updated: 2021-01-30
Packaged: 2021-03-16 01:14:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 575
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29073903
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SilverTonguedSlytherin1/pseuds/SilverTonguedSlytherin1
Summary: Obi-Wan Kenobi reads about the Dark Side in "The Jedi Path" and ponders his place in the Jedi Order.
Comments: 14
Kudos: 42





	What Is the Dark Side?

**Author's Note:**

> This fic is based largely on The Jedi Path: A Manual for Students of the Force by Daniel Wallace. In fact, the first section of this fic is a verbatim copy of the section of the book titled "What is the Dark Side?"   
> All rights belong to their respective owners (who are very much not mine).

** What Is the Dark Side? **

  
As Jedi Initiates, you are young and have not yet experienced the temptations of the dark side. But take heed, for nothing else has the same potential to ruin your good works and good name.

  
You already know the Force as omnipresent, simultaneously existing as both a personal energy and as an imposing power through its Living and Unifying aspects. The dark side is not some "missing piece." Don't be tricked into seeking it. The Force is a mountain rising from the water - the dark side is merely the submerged, scum-covered underside. If you choose to dive, the slime will trap and drown you. 

  
Passion lines the path to the dark side and must be avoided. Fear, anger, and hate are all strong passions that will cause you to lose focus and to find appeal in the easy pleasures of the dark side. Love is also a strong passion and equally dangerous. Those who obsess over a parent, child, or lover devote all their energies toward the special object of their focus. The Jedi must serve all, not a select few. Should the urge to contact your birth families or form romantic attachments emerge, please consult your Master. To dwell in the dark leads to suffering. Attachments will cause you to lose sight of your path and are cause for expulsion from the Order.

  
If you've spent time in the Jedi Archives, then you know the ancient history of our Order. Before the formation of the Jedi Order more than 24,000 years ago, the people of Tython recognized the presence of an anomalous, yet benevolent, energy field. They called it the Ashla and learned to use it in the same ways your instructors are passing on to you.

  
Yet some seemed determined to ignore the will of the Ashla. They allowed emotions to interfere with their actions. They listened to the subtle whispers of the shadowed, submerged part of the Force. They called it the Bogan, and sank into its darkness. They never resurfaced. 

~*~

  
Obi-Wan Kenobi rereads that third paragraph. 

"Love is also a strong passion and equally dangerous."

"Love is also a strong passion and equally dangerous."

Unbidden, he hears Grand Master Yoda's voice offering advice to a young Knight, "A Jedi shall not know anger. Nor hate. Nor love."

And, Force, but Obi-Wan loves. 

He loves his Clan, his friends, his crechemasters. He loves the Temple, his _home_. He loves the loth-cats in the Room of a Thousand Fountains. He can't imagine his life without love.

But here it is. In black and white. The words of Jedi Seer Sabla-Mandibu in the _The Jedi Path_. 

"Love is also a strong passion and equally dangerous."

Obi-Wan doesn't know how to feel, knowing those around him view love as forbidden (he aggressively shoves away the thought that he's never been loved, but it comes back with even greater force). 

Obi-Wan forces himself to breathe steadily. 

"Love is also a strong passion and equally dangerous."

"A Jedi shall not know anger. Nor hate. Nor love."

He can't. Obi-Wan can't. 

He can see himself: a placid-faced Jedi Knight, loveless. Soulless. Dead years before his body was put to pyre.

He can. But he won't. 

Obi-Wan takes another deep breath. He's not staying here, not staying in the Order. Obi-Wan can't stay where he can't love, can't trust people who don't love.

Now he just has to figure out where to go. 

**Author's Note:**

> To reiterate, the beginning of this fic comes from "The Jedi Path: A Manual for Students of the Force" by Daniel Wallace. I believe it's classified as Legends, but it is still available at Barnes and Noble.  
> *This book has so much information on the Jedi I haven't seen elsewhere. 
> 
> The quote from Yoda comes from Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones (it is sourced from this link: https://www.quotes.net/mquote/128792 )
> 
> Everything else is mine. 
> 
> I'm not totally happy with this fic. It might go better with Anakin deciding to return to Tatooine. Or as a longer fic. In my mind, Obi-Wan somehow ends up with the True Mandalorians and helps prevent Galidraan. 
> 
> I'm also seriously considering rewriting the entirety of The Jedi Path for my Mandalorian Jedi AU. 
> 
> Please tell me if I need to add any tags.


End file.
